<:t\' 



Ie 286 

.ri62 

1846 
Copy 1 



K»^^£f-: 




cnr> 









ADDRESS 



OF 



THOMAS BUFORD, 



DELIVERED ON THE 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1846, 



AT 



MIDWAY, WOODFORD CO., KY. 



LEXINGTON, KY. 

PRINTED AT THE OBSERVER AND RErOKTER OFFICE. 

18 4 6. 









''st'^ 



Mr. BuFORD^ 

We, as a Committee of the Assembly on the 4th of July, at 
Midway, respectfully ask the publication of your address, deliver- 
ed on that occasion. 

WILLIAM S. BUFORD. 

GEO. H. WALLACE. 

GEO. L. NUCKOLS. 



ADDRESS. 

Freemen of America: 

The history of the American Revolution is incomplete, without 
a knowledge of the causes which led to it. The event is, indeed, 
inexplicable, if we attend only to the res gesta itselL It was the 
growth of more than a century of struggle and conquest, in the 
cause of civil and religious liberty. At the very period when 
Priest-craft and King-craft had engulphed the European continent. 
Providence seems to have beneficently opened this western world, 
as an ark of safety to expiring freedom. 

The despotic combination of the Church in the old world, had 
too securely fastened their fetters upon the minds and consciences 
of men, ever to have been destroyed by an internal revolution. 
European society had, by ages of feudal and ecclesiastical discip- 
line, lost all form of self regeneration. The experiment of a 
government upon the principles of liberty had to be practically 
made upon a soil and amidst circumstances entirely different from 
those that then existed, when conjoins of theories and customs 
in Church and State, to which every State and Nation of society 
had contributed a part, presented an insuperable barrier to a 
simple ,original and improved experiment, upon the Heaven-de- 
scended basis. 

The Revolution of the old world must come from the new. 
The thrones and hierarchs of Europe knew this, and watched, 
with jealous and hostile eye, each movement of the young giants 
of America. 

It was a fortunate occurrence, that in the persecution which 
peopled our shores, religious and political rights were alike con- 



cerned; and, above all, no band of philosophers . brought in their 
pandecks and codes; no Jesuit society its ecclesiastical machinery, 
to be turned in the open field of the new world. 

The Bible was the Constitution for State and Church — their 
sheet-anchor — and, with such a basis, though the details of policy 
may, might, and must, from human imperfection, be sometimes 
wrong, the cardinal point of human right could not fail to be 
secured. 

New England's rugged soil received the stern and rigid morality 
and enthusiastic devotion of the Puritans. France lost the sterly 
virtue of her realms, when her mad policy drove to Carolina the 
remnants of the unyielding Hugenots, enriching America with re- 
cruits for the army of her revolution. 

The civil distribution of the Catalicts, released'upon the shores 
of Maryland, the section of a persecuted Church, were the first to 
proclaim religious toleration. The simple, frugal, form-despising 
Quaker, found, amidst the forest of Pennsylvania, the quiet repose 
and solemn state of society for which he longed. Witnesses of 
truth and liberty flocked [frcm the coasts of the world to this 
Canaan of hope, where they could proclaim their testimonies aloud 
and free, and planted the seeds whose fruits we this day, and in 
part the whole earth, are receiving the benefits of. 

Could the treasures of America have been told to the ears of 
Europe, by the foretelling tongue of a Joseph, her cities would 
have been rolled upon the ocean waves, her graneries would have 
been shipped, her arts and sciences exported to the shores of the 
new world, unpeopling her own soil to settle and seed this aspara- 
gus-bed of the world. 

Could England have thought that the puritans, exiled to the 
mountainous lands of the New England States, would ever be the 
feeders of her starving plebeans? Could France have believed, 
when she drove the Hugenots from her possessions, they would be 
the cause of clothing her vulgus, covering her degenerate children 
from the scorching sunbeams, and sheltering her inhabitants from 
the cold and chilly winds, by their cottons? Could the Provinces, 
States and Principalities of all Europe have believed their off- 
scouring would be the foundation of a government equally rivaling 
and finally excelling their own? No. 

Little did Europe think that America would have her merchant 
ships splitting the billows and waves of ihc ocean, pouring her in- 



valuable commerce into the ports of every nation, and spreading 
her improvements in science, arts and literature, and her inven- 
tions, to the study of the world, and particularly to the European 
mind. 

It was not the property-destroying taxation alone that induced 
the early settlers of America to throw off|the slave making yoke of 
Great Britain; for the Colonies of America were able to pay even 
the exhorbitant tax demanded of them by their respective Gov- 
ernments. It was the cause of truth and liberty — of the right of 
religious worship, in whatever manner it suited the believer — and 
a representation in the halls of legislation, that induced our fore- 
fathers to commence the revolution. 

It appears as if Providence directed the peopling of this conti- 
nent. Its settlers were the imitators of no one — the followers of 
no particular sect. It seems when the foot was placed upon the 
soil, the breath was purified, the wild forest engrafted a new nature 
and spirit — a spirit not checked by the wildness of the untrodden 
place, not excited by the war-cry of the savage and wild whistle 
of the panther, but ever rendy to meet, coolly and calmly, the 
dangers and vicissitudes that were incidental to the early settlers. 
They grew slow and steady, like the followers of Zien, strength- 
ening themselves by the purity of their principles, engrafting equal 
hope to the interests of all individuals, and finally developing 
themselves in a collonial responsibitity. 

The retrospect of eighty one years, introduces the American 
freemen in the theatre of ^65, erected in New York by the persecu- 
ted spirit of religious and civil right, where the first spark of liber- 
ty's spreading sun gleamed through the bows of a monarchical 
yoke, upon the thresholds of civil liberty. It was there the first 
spark of freedom exhibited itself to the continental colonies of 
America, not unlike the spark of Bethlehem, increasing its flames 
upon the very fabric of Kingly power, and using the sworn faith 
of Kingly subjects, as fuel, melting and moulding the hearts of 
royalty to the truth and purity of the sacrifice. 

From thence the vision is invited to rest upon the assembly of 
'74, when the plan of liberty's temple was marked out, and the 
first block of freedom's mansion laid. That assembly invited the 
mighty monster from his despotic throne and gigantic palace, to 
the platform of nature's rightjJ 0! pledge that bound the hearts of 



6 

America together by a link the most sacred of all ties — the ties of 
honor and country — may you never be violated! 

Again, in '75, a similar association of the colonies assembled hi 
Philadelphia, which assembly declared that they would no longer 
live under the galling laws of Parliament, and the costume of 
British allegiance was to be thrown off and never again worn by 
the true American. Continental Congress, charged with the judi- 
cial authority of their constituents, made a public declaration of 
the causes and necessity of taking up arms, and proceeded immedi- 
ately to levy and organize an army — to prescribe rules for the 
government of their naval and land forces — to contract debts and 
emit a paper currency upon the faith of the Union — and, gradu- 
ally assuming all the rights of sovereignty, they at last, on the 4th 
day of July, 177G, took a seperate and equal station among the 
nations of the earth, by declaring the United Colonies to be free 
and independent. This day 70 years ago, the flag the motto of 
which was man is capable of self-government, waived its blazoning 
face over the plains and forests of America — raised itself in the 
centre of the Union, and, upheld by the standard of patriotism, 
was a balm to the soul of the wounded, and a bright star to the 
despairing soldier, when an occasional defeat would throw its 
smothering veil over his spirits. This flag stood, like the brazen 
serpent, amidst the army of America; the soldier, worn out with 
seven years' labors, was refreshed and cured by its gentle wave; 
one single glance would urge the fainted heart to sacrifice liberty's 
blood upon the altar of religious privileges. 

The memorable declaration of the 4th recapitulated the oppres- 
sion of the British Kings, and declared that State privileges and 
individual rights were stamped upon the heart of nature, and Prov- 
idence would not ancTTcould not allow her most sacred law to be 
violated by the poisoned edicts of the European Governments. 

The English despots were not satisfied by poisoning the veins of 
all Europe, but wished to keep in subjection the heart of America, 
by the embittered yoke which had been laid upon the necks of 
Christendom. 

The privilege spirit of Christianity burst forth from the bosom of 
America's forest, broke the chains that girded her shrine, and rais- 
ed her spotless mantle of piety against the war-flag of Great Brit- 
ain. Great and mighty Providence, what dangers threatened this 
clysian field — this virgin ^o\\ of creation. 



When the decrees of the 4th of July, '76, reached the shores 
of Europe, the Queen of the ocean set sail to the ports of Ameri- 
ca, to immolate the fathers of freedom upon the altar of rebellion. 
What solacing hope could now be left to the United Colonies? — 
What chance of victory was left them? They would have al- 
most been willing to withdraw the decree of the 4th, but, like 
German Protestants, they march to the battle field, willing to 
sacrifice their all, for the sake of truth and liberty. Protected by 
the shield of faith, they won an inheritance lor the present and fu- 
ture generations, which will forever outweigh the jewels, wealth, 
power and principality of kingly possessions. 

What heart does not beat and pulsate in unison with the emo- 
tions of that assembly? — What eye does not let fall the tear of 
sorrowing sympathy for the misfortunes, troubles and vexations, of 
the revolutionary soldiers, who labored not so much for their good 
of their country as for its future glory, greatness and magnificence, 
the enjoyment of -which their offspring were to realize. 

From the theatres of 'G5, '74, and '75, your attention is invited 
to the parlour of the West — where the war-cry of the savage is no 
longer heard, the traces of his wigwam blotted out by the plough- 
share. Where once the wild deer leaped from rock to rock, shun- 
ning the claws of the ravenous wolf, the merino lamb gambols in 
perfect ease and security, budding, at his pleasure, the spice bush! 
The Biikshire pig sleeps soundly upon the bear's bed! The woods 
that were once thrilled with the preying cry of the eagle, are har- 
monized by the melodies of the thrush. The myriads of cloud-" 
reaching poplars — evidences of the strength of the soil — are seldom 
to be seen. In their stead, vegetable matter, for the nourishment 
of man, is cultivated. 

Oh! my country, whose soil is ploughed by the sun-beams — in 
whose realms paradise is revised — may the blood that fell from lib- 
erty's veins be ever pure and holy in thy sepulchre — never permit 
the blood of aspiring chieftains to flow into that virgin sanctuary ! 
— never allow the aspiring grasp of a tyrant to break the golden 
chain that girds thy individual States ! — never allow it to tear as- 
der thy Constitution, the only security to thy present and future 
greatness! 

The eye of the historian had wandered from age to age, from 
continent to continent, from nation to nation, in search for thirst 
of blood satisfied, but it would have ever wandered, had it not fell 



8 

upon the tomb of Washington. Now, whilst the storms and dan- 
gers of war are threatning that sepulchre, there is still protection, 
since in the archives of America are securely placed the policy and 
codes of Clay — a man who travelled the dark, dismal,_and uncer- 
tain path of a political life, but, like a Moses, was not allowed to 
put his feet upon the promised land! 

THOMAS BUFORD. 



„■ i.TsiKiviinif 






011801839 4 ^ 






S^'r^Hj^r "\. ■!*» 



:.^: 






